Expression Of Public Interest In Administrative Law

Public interest is a typical concept of uncertainty; simultaneously it's also a fundamental concept in administrative law. Hartmut ? Maurer, the Germany scholar, used to emphasize the importance of public interest in his "General Administration of Law", he said that: administration is on the base of public interest.At the same time, as a legal concept in current laws of China, public interest not only appears in the act of laws, but also turns up in specific cases. Unfortunately, there are no current laws of China defining public interest or demonstrating how to use this concept in practical situation. And public interest has been the excuse of tort; sometimes the government expropriates private property unreasonably and interrupts private sphere in the name of public interest.Generally speaking, in China, regular research related to public interest appeared since 2004; because of appearance of numerous specific cases involving public interest in recent years, on 2004 Conference of Administrative Law Association, in order to meet the request of the practical situation, "definition of public interest" became the most important issue. From then on, more and more Chinese administrative scholars pursue the definition of public interest. But until now, any that attempt to explain and define the typical concept of uncertainty is considered one-sided and incomplete. After countless efforts of concluding a complete definition of public interest are in vain, some scholars try to avoid theoretical analysis. In their opinion, as a theoretical concept, public interest is meaningless, and the concept of public interest supposes to be considered from a practical perspective. In other words, they think public interest is not so much a concept of administrative theory as a system existing in administrative practical situation. Although this point of view can't be agreed by everyone, it still provides another angle of vision for public interest research. Obviously, Chinese administrative scholars have recognized that establishing the public interest system was very important. Yet this used to be ignored for a long time in the past 60 years in China. Now, the research in this field is no longer limited to theoretical definition, Chinese administrative scholars have put the more emphases on the object that how to establish the public interest system and how to solve the specific cases. From my point of view, it's necessary to define public interest theoretically; however, what is the urgency for China is to establish the public interest system in order to meet the request of practical situation.